Five Years of Experimentation
by KamiyaYoriko
Summary: Being on a mission with Stein, the young Spirit gets injured. Kami visits him in the infirmary and tells him a very important thing about his meister. Very slight KamixSpirit.


Being in the infirmary room with some broken bones made him want to do something badly, even if it was something like reading notes from the lessons he missed because of his injury. For a few days he couldn't do anything but laying in the bed and looking out of the window, watching what was happening in the school yard. It was so boring after a while, especially when there weren't any children around.

Spirit smiled at Stein with a thankful look in his eyes, while the boy was putting down some books at the night stand next to the bed.

"Here. With this, you won't be that bored while being stuck here."

"Thanks." he took a look at the cover of the book on the top. "These are..."

"I brought a few of my favorite anatomy books." Stein smirked, putting his hand on his partner's shoulder. "Exciting, isn't it?"

"Yeah, sure."

Spirit gave a quiet sigh, looking at the floor. _Typical Stein._ No matter how well they had been getting along with each other for more than five years, it was something that was still bothering him about his meister. Whenever they were on a mission, Stein had that stupid urge to dissect or, as he said, _"examine"_ different creatures, human beings included. And it usually caused one or both of them getting injured during the battle and being hospitalized. This time, it was Spirit. But at least they had accomplished their mission, and took the pre-kishin's soul. It was only their fifty-fourth human soul in five years. Everyone in their class kept saying that they were very slow at collecting souls, and Spirit saw that the others were actually right. At this rate he will never become a death scythe. Sometimes, when he was in a very bad mood, he was even thinking about giving up with Stein and looking for a new partner...

Suddenly, he heard someone knocking on the door, and a moment later, a long-haired, quiet girl entered. She seemed to be a little worried, but tried to hide it by covering her mouth with her left hand. The girl took a few steps forward, then stopped, looking at the meister-weapon duo in front of her. Spirit's face became faint red, and he turned his head away.

"Looks like the top student came to laugh at me, as usual." he muttered.

"Wrong." Kami answered without a wink of eyelid. "I'm here to see if you're okay."

He blushed a little more.

"I guess it's time for me to leave." Stein suddenly said. "Get better soon!"

"What?" Spirit asked with a confused face. After realizing what Stein had said, he smiled at him, and lifted his thumb. "Ah, okay, bye-bye!"

"So, what's up?" Kami asked after Stein had left and closed the door of the infirmary. She came closer and sat down onto the chair that Stein used a few minutes ago.

"It's nothing. I'm fine, really."

Spirit felt a little awkward. He didn't feel like looking at the girl, so he started to poke a scar on his palm with his fingers instead. For at least five minutes neither of them said anything, then Kami broke the silence.

"I wonder why you let him do it."

Spirit finally lifted his head to look at her with a questioning glance.

"What?"

"Don't tell me you haven't noticed." She looked at him as if she was about to burst into laugh. "Those scars on your skin... I guess he does it almost every night."

"What are you talking about?"

"His _experiments_ on you."

"You mean he dissects me at night?! You're insane, Kami."

"I'm telling the truth."

He sat up in his bed, ignoring the pain that splitted into his shoulder the moment he moved his body.

"Nonsense! You're telling this stupid thing because you're jealous at me."

"Why would I be jealous at a loser like you?" Kami raised her voice.

"Because I have a great partner, and you have nobody. Even though you always get the highest score on written tests, you'll never make a single death scythe, because nobody wants to pair up with such a stubborn, short-tempered, annoying idiot! That's why you are jealous and want to make me get rid of my meister."

He expected her to hit him, but Kami was sitting motionless, and finally gave a sigh.

"If I really wanted to do that, I would have made up something more believable, don't you think?"

At first he didn't know what to say. They were looking into each other's eyes for a while, then he took a deep breath, and clenched his fists.

"You're so damn clever." he blurted out, blushing. Then he suddenly made a groan as he felt a shrewd pain in his shoulder.

"Are you okay?" Kami asked instantly, leaning toward the sick boy, her voice was filled with worry.

"Yeah... This freaking kills me though..." he answered, gasping. He forced himself to smile, just to make her not to worry that much. "Aaaargh, that damned creepy idiot! I never wanna see him again!" he shouted suddenly.

"Don't be so upset!" she tried to calm him down. "At least you already know what's been going on, so you can prevent it next time."

"I don't care _preventing_ it, I want to _stop_ it! I knew that something was wrong with this guy from the first moment, but I've never imagined him doing _this_ to me! I want to get as far from him as possible, I'll never even utter his name again!"

"If you do so, you'll never get a new meister, since you're so stupid that nobody else could bear your annoying soul wavelength..."

His eyes met with Kami's, making each other blush, though Spirit's face was so pale that it only became delicate pink. That moment he suddenly forgot about Stein and the whole experiment stuff, the only thing he could think about was the girl next to his bed, the girl who had always been calling him an idiot, a loser, an annoying lame; who got irritated every time she saw him hanging around geese. The girl who was there with him when he got injured, who was worried about him and came to visit him every time he was like this. They never did anything but tease each other, but he realised that he would do anything to protect her if she was in danger. And, if both of them felt this way, then, no matter how much they were trying to hide their feelings, maybe...

"Hey, Kami."

"What?"

He stretched his arm toward her, smiling at her.

"Well... Um, wanna give a try?"

Her eyes widened.

"Me? Pairing up with someone like _you_?"

Though half of him knew that this would be the answer, he was still very disappointed when hearing it. He was about to pull his arm back, when Kami suddenly took his hand.

"Well, why not? As I see, they are matching after all... Our wavelengths."

**AN:  
I wanted to write a one-shot like this since the first time I've read the 2nd chapter of the manga, it was... huh, so many years ago, I can't remember exactly XD It's my first fanfiction I'm completely satisfied with, I think the young Spirit's relationship with Kami came out pretty well. I tried to make them similar to Maka and Soul - especially Kami and Maka, since they're mother and daughter - and somehow I like the result. I should always work at night XD  
Please review, I really like critiques!**


End file.
